Chief executive of TechUK Julian David said: "Losing the EIF risks seriously damaging the ability for innovative new or rapidly growing tech companies to get the funding they need. The case for the UK retaining a piece of the EIF is overwhelming from an economic and practical point of view."

He added that while the UK could do more to fill any funding gaps itself, the loss of EIF funding would be like "pull[ing] up the drawbridge."

A quick primer: the EIB is a multilateral development bank. In plain English, all the EU member states pay into the bank and are shareholders. The UK has a 16% shareholding, equating to €10.2 billion (£9.34 billion), according to The Financial Times. Member states receive funding for infrastructure and other projects that might promote the EU's ultimate objectives of cohesion.

The most attractive option is to simply waltz off with the €10.2 billion share — but in reality that's unlikely to happen, not least because of Britain's "exit bill." Even if the UK does recoup some money, there are months of uncertainty in the meantime about how VCs, and therefore tech startups, will access capital. Business Insider earlier this year reported that the EIF freeze had affected firms including Hoxton Ventures, Episode 1 Ventures, and Seedcamp.

But TechUK is less optimistic in its report. "The BBB is still relatively young, and such a large scale up in activity, at the speed which would be necessary to prevent any gap in access to finance for UK based tech enterprises would be a complex and difficult challenge for the Bank."